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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22941304">long, lingering looks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/yakyuu_yarou/pseuds/yakyuu_yarou'>yakyuu_yarou</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mechanisms (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon-Typical Violence, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:08:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,092</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22941304</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/yakyuu_yarou/pseuds/yakyuu_yarou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lyf keeps kissing other people. Marius hates it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Marius von Raum/Lyfrassir Edda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>159</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Stowaways' Shenanigans</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>long, lingering looks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Someone sent me a prompt, and my brain kicked up. 1k words of Marius pining, and being in denial about it. Enjoy 💙</p><p>(Now I can get back to the sad.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Marius fucking <em> hates </em> it. The first time it happened, he didn’t really think too much of it: Lyf’d been off the banged-up soapbox of a chartered ship (Marius has never asked how <em> much </em> he paid for it, but he’s certain it was Way Too Much) for little more than maybe a month? Maybe a year? Hard to tell, but a very short amount of time, so he’d felt it was somewhat understandable for the Inspect- <em> former </em> Inspector to want to blow off some steam when they docked at some random space station to refuel and relax. (When they left, the station was deserted, and a little while later, there were reports on the relevant news networks of a previously well-maintained research station exploding seemingly out of nowhere, leaving no survivors. Lyf seemed unfazed.)</p><p>Then it happened again. And again, and again, every time the <em> Aurora</em>’s docked somewhere and they’ve had time to leave the ship, Lyfrassir Edda ends up in some corner, kissing <em> someone </em> he’ll happily leave behind to die a gruesome death hours later. Marius has wondered repeatedly why he doesn’t just <em> stay with them </em> if he wants to feel connected to people so desperately that he’s kissing complete strangers, but then he always remembers that if he did, he’d just end up dying with them, and - well. Lyf <em> has </em> managed to escape the destruction of his entire system, so he has to have some sort of survival instinct. Doesn’t mean he has to like seeing it in action so much. (He bites back a sigh of relief every time Lyf joins them at the end of their trips, and lets it out when he’s alone in his quarters aboard the ship. She never tells.)</p><p>He does comment on it, once, when it <em> doesn’t </em> happen, sneers at Lyfrassir drinking something so rainbow-coloured that he would be worried about him if he <em> cared</em>. But he doesn’t, so he bares his teeth in something that would be a threat if Lyf were as immortal as the rest of them, and growls “couldn’t find anybody to give a final sendoff to, could you?” when he walks past, whiskey-laced-with-something-indefinable in one hand, and violin bow held like a weapon in the other. He can feel Lyf’s eyes on that hand as he leaves the decrepit station’s shoddy excuse for a bar, but he doesn’t turn or react in any way, not to that and not to the knife that whizzes past his left ear with surprising accuracy - or a shocking lack thereof. (Later, when he cackles, voice and eyes full of cruel glee as he takes out man after woman after person in the station’s well-stocked medbay with his bow - to gather supplies, he’s claimed, since now there’s actually someone who can get properly hurt -, he definitely <em> isn’t </em> thinking of that look, of the way it lingered on him and the way it both stung and warmed him, somehow. He <em> isn’t.</em>)</p>
<hr/><p>He snaps, eventually. At Lyf. They’re alone, which isn’t all that rare because more often than not, Lyfrassir is annoyed by the others and the others can’t be bothered to be cautious around him, so mutual avoidance is the best strategy for all of them. Well, except Marius, because Marius still finds Lyf <em> fun </em> to annoy and Lyf seems to have gotten tired of leaving a room as soon as Marius walks in. So more often than not, the two of them find themselves sitting together in silence that is only punctuated by annoyed noises from Lyf whenever Marius does <em> anything </em> and habitual shouting when Marius so much as <em> thinks </em> of his violin too loudly. (He’s never figured out how Lyf can tell. He’s never thought to ask, either.)</p><p>“The fuck you staring at, <em> Inspector</em>?” he snarls, teeth bared and violin bow pointed at the subject of his anger, who has been looking at him, just <em> looking </em> silently with an intensity he’s unused to.</p><p>“Nothing?” Lyf’s voice has shifted upwards oddly, though not in the caught-in-the-headlights way that Marius knows. Instead, it’s almost dreamy, unguarded and … soft, if Lyf ever is. He seems to not have clocked the use of his former title, which Marius only ever does <em> specifically </em> to rile him up these days. (He’s been doing it a lot less ever since he once caught a flash of genuine pain in his eyes after he’d said it. Not worth it if it gets responses that aren’t annoyance.) Marius doesn’t get it.</p><p>“<em>Sure</em>, Lyf. Sure. So you definitely haven’t been watching <em> me </em> for at least ten minutes, then?” He can’t stop prodding, not that he’s really trying. It’s fun, that’s all. The “fuck you” that he gets in reply isn’t satisfying at <em> all</em>, though, because it lacks all heat. And Lyfrassir still hasn’t stopped <em> staring</em>.</p><p>Marius acts before his brain catches up with what he’s doing. (He does that quite a lot, it’s sort of his <em> thing</em>. Gets him into fun situations at least as often as it gets him into trouble, so he’s not complaining. Usually.) He surges upward and ahead, crosses the room with three strides where it should take six, and looms over Lyf. Lyf, whose eyes have widened, yes, but who refuses to lean away from Marius and give in because he’s a stubborn fucker. Well. So is Marius. So he, too, refuses to give in and instead follows through, leans forward because now <em> he </em> is the one desperate for a connection (just not with whoever-is-available). He takes a breath that fills his lungs with a scent that shouldn’t exist because it carries things from outside reality inside it, and presses his lips to Lyf’s.</p><p>It starts out rougher than he means for it to because he overbalances and nearly tips into Lyfrassir, but a hand on his chest braces him, and he gets the hand with his bow on the table next to Lyf and the other tangled into Lyf’s hair, and then the kiss turns gentle, and lasting, and Marius is glad he can make it quite a while without breathing. A quiet sound escapes Lyf, caught by Marius’s mouth, a desperate, yearning thing that shifts into the most satisfied sigh Marius has ever heard, and both their eyes slip closed.</p>
<hr/><p>The next time they make planetfall, Lyf doesn’t kiss anybody until they get back to the <em> Aurora</em>. (She still doesn’t tell, but in a now-rare moment of him being alone in the medbay, she plays his own relieved sighs from months-years-half an eternity ago at him while the display over his desk simply reads <em> [Finally.]</em>)</p>
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